Isang Bahagi Ng Kalooban Ko!: My Adventure In Mary Immaculate Parish!

On January 29 2011, I attended a pre-cana seminar at Mary Immaculate Parish in Moonwalk Village, Talon V Las Pinas City by the MIP Family Life Ministry. As I recall, this was actually the first time I entered the parish. I never went there before and I thought that the parish was actually a park or a zoo, whenever I passed it by heading to school. I never actually thought that it could have been a parish. The entrance just looks too magnificent. When I arrived at the location, I was asking around for the pre-cana seminar location, I was fairly lost. A few kind people directed me to the location and, when I entered, I tried to look for a seat first before looking around at the couples. At first I really didn’t see that much but when I looked around I saw a lot of old couples. I was actually expecting to a lot of young couples wanting to get married. Most of them were around the ages of 40 – 60 years old and all of them wanted to get a traditional marriage at a church since they got married at the judge from the start. I was actually quite shocked and pleased to find out their reason for getting married. It was nice and as the saying goes, it is better late than never.

The seminar was just in a small house-like building, one floor, and it looked like a presentation room. Where there is nothing but chairs, a few tables and a projector. The session started off normally, by the speaker introducing himself to us (I can’t remember their names K ) and telling us what will come. He even told us that it would take a whole day for the pre cana seminar, which made me worry because I had a lot of stuff to do that day. But he assured us he can finish it in half a day’s time. The speaker then talked about the important stuff about marriage. The speaker asked “why do you get married?” The couples in the seminar started to answer by saying that it is a blessing from God, it is a way to get into Heaven, it is for love, and because it is a sacrament. He acknowledged their answers and started his talk by explaining why their answers were correct. I, for one, totally agree with the love portion, I believe that the first reason why one should get married is because of love. Not the falling in love, phase of love, but the willing to work on it love phase. People will always fall in love but when that happens, they have two choices to make, leave or work on it. I believe the only time one should get married is when they have started on working on their love. It shows that they are willing to work on it and they are going to last for a very long time. He then talked about the inappropriate reasons for one to get married, such as forced marriage and marriage on the rebound. He also discussed about the obstacles to a good marriage. These obstacles are poor communication and inappropriate reasons. But he did give us the secret to a good marriage that is the desire to make your partner happy. When you have that desire to make your partner happy you truly love that person. Now, what should be shown in a good marriage? That is the visible sign that Christ is with you in your marriage, to know one’s responsibilities, and to be a good example to other couples. Care, openness, respect, understanding, and responsibility is shown when a couple loves one another. How about prayer in marriage? Prayer is of vital importance in marriage because living a life for the love of God is as important as being faithful in prayer. He then explained the importance of appreciating your partner. During the talk we even had activities and the couples shared stuff about their spouses. It was really sweet. The talk, all in all, was very inspiring and I learned a lot. After he finished his talk (it was almost lunch time) he then gave a brief talk about the RH bill. He enlightened me about why the church is against it and the bad side of the bill. And I believe he was right about the evils of the RH bill. After all of that, they gave us free lunch which I humbly accepted. I even walked home (took me an hour) after that, it was actually a good day for a walk. I had a real blast. This was a really great

experience.